Last year on September 8th my husband and I
had a birthday party for Mary. We invited the kids and grandkids over to
celebrate. The little ones were very excited. Like all children they love
birthday parties. They brought a beautiful cake, baked and decorated by their
mom, with pink rosettes for the special occasion.

Our oldest grandson led the group by reading the meditations
and prayers. The younger ones followed along by looking at the pictures and
taking turns placing a flower at Mary’s feet following each Hail Mary. I should
mention that this wasn’t exactly the Hallmark moment that you might be
envisioning. They were excited and full of energy, so there were more than a
few interruptions. You could even say that it was chaotic at times BUT we did
it. And they loved it!

After the Rosary, we had dinner, lit the candles on the cake, sang Happy Birthday to Mary, and let the kids take turns blowing the candles out.

But before we got to that point, we were midway through dinner when our four-year-old grandson leaned over to his mom and said “Mom, where’s Mary?” A bit surprised, she smiled and replied “Honey, Mary’s in Heaven.” Lucas kind of tilted his head and said “Oh, I thought she was coming to the party. Well if she’s not going to be here, let’s just give the cake to Pap-Pap.” We had no idea until that moment that Lucas thought all along that he was going to get to meet Mary that day. His total trust and inherent sense of wonder made it possible for him to believe that the Mother of God was in fact going to join us for dinner and cake that day.

His total trust and inherent sense of wonder made it possible for him to believe…

I suppose this is what Jesus means when he says we must “become like little children” in order to enter the Kingdom of God.

This year I’ll be out of town on Mary’s birthday, so we’re
moving her party to the end of the month. But one thing’s for certain, we’re
sticking with the tradition we started last year with the hope that it will be passed
on for generations to come. Do you have a favorite Mary tradition?